Thousands Watch Mutineers Facebook Live Broadcasts

According to Facebook insights tool, the Marquette Mutineers Facebook Live game broadcasts were viewed over 4,800 times.

“We are ecstatic with those results,” said Mutineers General Manager Brice Burge. “We were hoping to just focus on two great matchups and see how things would develop. To see that much support and interest in our team and the Great Lakes Hockey League is a great sign.”

The Friday, December 2 game at the West Bend Bombers and Saturday, December 3 game at the Fond du Lac Bears were split into three different videos that were live-streamed through the social media platform. Facebook users could either watch the game live or watch a video after the game was over. Viewers posted that they were watching from all over the country, including downstate Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Florida and Arizona. It was the first time a full GLHL game was broadcasted on social media.

Burge said that these games were specifically targeted by Mutineers’ staff for a potential broadcast, as West Bend will host the 2016-17 GLHL tournament and Fond du Lac shares their rink with NCAA D3 Marian University.

“We wanted to experiment with one rink’s broadcast potential then relax and focus on a more technically-sound broadcast the next day. We think we accomplished both of our goals with a quality performance that we are proud of but know that we can also grow upon,” Burge said.

The videos were produced with help of La Dolce Video & Design, based out of Marquette. They were the company that edited and produced the “Announcers for Hockeyville” video during Marquette’s successful Kraft Hockeyville USA campaign. Additional companies also sponsored the broadcast like Wattsson & Wattsson Jewelers, Goodwill Industries of Northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Marquette Chamber of Commerce, Big Boy, Enright Construction and Carlson Media.

Two interview videos – one with La Dolce staff about the technical side of the broadcast and a postgame interview with Mutineers defenseman Chris Freeborn – added another 1,000 views for the weekend.

Additionally, the Mutineers page received a 240 percent increase in videos viewed, 254 percent increase in overall reach and 267 percent increase in page likes in the last week.